Todd Wiseman Jr.’s The School Duel makes The Hunger Games look like a walk in the park, just casually violent enough in tone to feel like a forecast for the future.
“I challenge you at home,” says the commercial flanked with militant teenage boys. “Don’t take it to school: Take it to the duel.”
Set in a dystopian near-future Florida (or. . .Florida), Todd Wiseman Jr.’s The School Duel stars Kue Lawrence as Samuel Miller, a 13-year-old boy whose violent tendencies and “hit list” gets him enlisted to participate in the annual School Duel. Think: The Hunger Games x The Purge for incels/future school shooters.
In this universe, gun control is outlawed, and school shootings are at an all-time high, so the Free State of Florida has made it so these bullies can let out their aggression in a once-a-year literal blowout. One person will be declared a King and the other the Martyr. Cheerleaders in long puritanical skirts motivate the players by describing the guns as they sing their anthems. The school band plays during intermission as they clear the bodies (it’s good to know band geeks still have a purpose during apocalyptic sporting events).
“Every second you’re there, you’re winning,” Michael Sean Tighe’s Captain Stegmann tells Samuel. Because the Duel is treated as an honor to represent your country, even if the game itself is rigged.
The School Duel is dark and depressing, probably because it feels like a glimpse of the future we’re hurdling toward. It hovers between feeling over the top and right in line with where we’re headed, which provides a startling experience for the viewer in our current political climate. While it takes a while to get to the actual duel, when it does, Wiseman Jr. doesn’t hold back. Children are shot down by other children. If only some of these duelers’ stories were explored, like the black teenager who says he was mistaken for “one of you guys.” But then again, that’s not the world we’re living in.
The School Duel screened at the Miami Film Festival.
